Sweden has a long tradition of producing glam/sleaze/garage rock’n’roll with acts such as Easy Action, Swedish Erotica, Hardcore Superstar and Backyard Babies. We also have newer acts that are up and coming like Gemini Five, Enemies Swe, Chrasdiet and the band that I’m going to review now Crucified Barbara.

The band are an all female act and their debut single came at the end of last year called “Losing the game”, a single that got quite a lot playtime on the Swedish music channel. Now it’s time for this Stockholm based band to let us take part of their debut album IN DISTORTION WE TRUST. They have toured through Sweden and were a support act to Pain on its Swedish tour.

I’ve said it before but I can gladly say it again, I think that it’s incredibly fun to see girls that play harder music. The rock’n’roll industry need more female acts for sure.

It can be a bit tricky to describe their music but I’ll give it a try. Their image lies closely to sleaze/glam rock and also close to the other branches of the party-rock genre. Their music borders to heavy hardrock in the sense that their music is jammed with heavy, riffing guitars.

IN DISTORTION WE TRUST was recorded in Pama Studios in Sweden by the man who also produced the album together with Mankan Sedenberg. The production sounds real heavy and well balanced and leaves most of the space to lead vocals and lead guitar but despite the focus on that they haven’t forgotten the rhythm section. They have managed to maintain the sleaze/glam vein that defines CB’s music but also combined that with the heavier hardrock the band have in their music. The production, sounds in my ear, surprisingly heavy and stable.

One of the biggest problems that I’ve noticed a few of the leading female acts have is the weak singer, sure they manage to sound good in the studio but when they come on a live stage they usually sounds much poorer vocalwise. However in CB’s case I think the opposite ‘cause Mia’s voice can handle a live situation really well. She sounds just as good on stage as she does in the studio. Besides singing she also handles both rhythm and lead guitar, which she impresses on, with back up from Klara.

In the steady rhythm section we find Nicki on drums and Ida on bass and those two does a really good job and the other girls can lean back on a stable foundation.

All of the music and lyrics are written by the band together and there are a total of 11 tracks on the album. Even though the lyrics tend to become a bit too childish, in some way they sure have the ability to write catchy hooks and refrains. The first part of the album sounds the best, after about half of the album it feels like the songs fades out the further on you come into the album and at the end it feels like they blend together. They should maybe have narrowed down the songs in order to make a more powerful album as a whole.

But the girls have high potential of going really far in the future and I think that all of the glam/sleaze rockers out there should take a closer look at this if you already haven’t done it. I think though that they have the ability to reach the more mainstream audience as well thanks to their catchy refrains.

Crucified Barbara have recently done a few shows in France and they are booked for gigs in England during this summer as well as several festivals in Sweden this summer, I’m glad to see that also the rest of Europe are opening their eyes for this Swedish up and coming act.

Killer tracks on this very listenable album are “Play me hard (the bachelor’s guitar)”, “In distortion we trust”, “Losing the game”, “Motorfucker” and “I need a cowboy from hell”.